How to Reduce Stalking

Hard-soled shoes could create more noise than rubber one. This way you can check your clothes before stalking for the deer because they play important part in avoiding as much noise as possible. They can either help your chances of successful stalking or create problems for you.

The sound of footsteps can be reduced by wearing the proper footwear. It is almost impossible to travel quietly in the woods if shod in hard-soled shoes. Rubber is the quietest practical material for hunting footwear, but the soles should be soft enough so that minor irregularities in the ground may be felt with the foot. Tennis shoes and moccasins are very quiet, but soft snow and water make them uncomfortable. Furthermore, the average civilized foot cannot take the punishment which they give because of their extreme flexibility and because of their lack of ankle support. The city man who wishes to stalk deer should practice the woodsman's walk, if he wishes to be quiet in the woods. The stiff-legged, heel-and-toe gait of the pavement should be ft at the end of the sidewalk.

The true woodsman walks with the knees slightly bent so that there is no solid thump when the foot hits the ground. The ball of the foot touches the ground first and the whole foot comes in contact before the weight of the body is transferred from the other foot.

The foot and ankle muscles are relaxed so that if the foot can feel a brittle stick under it, the body weight may be shifted to a part of the foot which will not break the stick. This walking on the muscles instead of on the bones is very tiring to the man who is not accustomed to walking in this manner, but it can be very quiet method of walking; and with practice it can become a very effective way to travel over rough ground. Progress will be slow until this walking method becomes a habit, but I have seen many men who could travel through the woods at a dogtrot in almost complete silence. If we travel quietly against the wind, the deer's eyesight becomes the chief obstacle to a close approach.

Under equal conditions, a man's eyesight is better than that of a deer, yet if the deer is motionless and the man is in motion, the advantage is with the deer. This is a two-way advantage. First, the deer can spot a moving object against and through a motionless landscape, and, second, the man's motion through the woods gives him the illusion of standing still with the entire landscape in motion. Because of these conditions, the hunter should make frequent stops in order to scan the surrounding area and obtain a true picture instead of a distorted one.

City man should practice woodsman's walk if the yare interested in hunting deer. For stalking the deer take all the necessary and possible measures to avoid as much noise as possible and maximized your chances of successful stalking.